Abstract:
Fast-paced automotive industry has revolutionized the art of manufacturing over the last century;
introducing the world to various innovative concepts ranging from mass production to robots to
lean manufacturing. With the ongoing increase in product and process complexity, coupled with
the pressure of thousands of lost dollars for every minute of line stop, manufacturing engineers
play a key role in both the design and the operations of a world-class factory.
The talk highlights some of the strategic and tactical challenges in the automotive industry
and current data analytics used to help with decision making. As we equip our new intelligent
factories with more and more sensors as part of Industry Revolution 4.0, Big data and data
analytics will play even a more important role in decision making.

Bio:
Raj Kawlra, a U of M alumni, is Director of Manufacturing Planning and Control at Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles. He has 33 years of automotive experience in concurrent engineering, advanced
manufacturing engineering, quality, lean manufacturing, launching products, and manufacturing
planning functions. He has had the opportunity to work in both powertrain and vehicle assembly.
Over the years, he has successfully developed and implemented major strategies to drive
improvements in throughput, quality, and cost.
Raj spent the first 16 years of his automotive career at GM Tech Center with responsibilities
ranging from lead process engineer for the first “lights out” Flexible Manufacturing System in
Powertrain in the late 80s to leading the development of a simple plant floor problem solving
toolkit that leveraged advanced statistics and enabled GM to achieve world-class dimensional
quality levels during the MY97 launch of their full size trucks at (3) plants. He also had the
opportunity to work with the best lean gurus to develop GM’s Global Manufacturing System and
implement it for their greenfield plant that launched Cadillac CTS in CY01.
Raj joined Chrysler with the responsibility to develop and implement the Black Belt program at all
of their (28) plant locations. Over the years, he has held numerous leadership positions ranging
from Manufacturing Quality Director to Dimensional Quality Director to Industrial Engineering
Director to the current role as Manufacturing Planning Director. Over the last 3 years, he has
also led the development of World Class Technology (WCT) - application of lean principles to
manufacturing engineering function that designs and implements equipment and processes for
all launches - first of its kind in the industry. WCT has been successfully applied across all regions
and divisions at FCA, with savings ranging from $5 to 10M for each launch.
Raj is a Big 10 fan, having received degrees from University of Wisconsin (MS, Mech Engr), University
of Illinois (MS, IE), and University of Michigan (PhD, IOE). He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering
from Indian Institute of Technology. He also has an Executive Management Certification from
INSEAD. Over the years he has been on the Department of Defense Oversight Committee (CY09-
11) and has served on the Advisory Board of University of Wisconsin’s Industrial and Systems
Engineering department (CY11-17).